Love'n'Hate: Mexico Revisited

Today's date is April 22nd and I returned from Mexico on the 6th of March. Six weeks I've been back in the US and while it's been nice to be home, I've come to realize that Mexico was really a kind of chicken soup for my soul, despite the first post I wrote about it when I got back.

While I was in Mexico, I started working on a Top Ten List of Stuff I Loved About Mexico so that I wouldn't forget when I got home. And I did more or less forget - I had to, otherwise I'd miss it too much. In fact, I think that's why My First Post Back had so much vitriol going on with it - if you can't have what you love, better to dis it completely. Some kind of kooky control issue that really felt necessary when I got back.

The United States is still such a sucky horrible place right now. All the 9-11 stuff that I thought about in the first couple of years after the event is actually beginning to surface to popular consciousness, and the President's approval ratings are WAAAAAY the fuck down, but it seems like all the so-called "opposition" party wants to do (you know, those pussies called Democrats) is use the Presdient's unpopularity to capitalize on the mid-term elections. The only thing worse in America right now than the Bush Administration is the weak-kneed Democractic Party. But with both Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton having voted for war in the first place - what does anyone really expect from those ASSholes?

Since arriving back in the States, I've tried to continue with some of the habits I picked up in Mexico. I'm still more or less off bread and other white products - rice, potatoes, tortillas, etc. I lost fifteen pounds in Mexico doing that and getting out everyday. I'm not as active, because I live in the fucking desert and there's no water to jump into. I'm drinking A LOT less than in Mexico - it's more expensive here, and it's harder to walk around with a bottle of beer. But the best part is that I've managed to Continue to Avoid Reading the Fucking Newspaper - so you won't hear a damn word about Our Latest Stupid Adventure in Iran, because I don't know anymore about it than I knew in Mexico when I told a bunch of German kids, "Of course my government is going to invade Iran. And you're government will back us, so fuck the fuck off with your moral righteousness about my democracy."

In any case - I posted a lot of crap about how lame Mexico was when I got back, and part of it was defense mechanism and part of it was true. Mexico is not for the timid. It's loaded with wild contradictions that can feel like a four-alarm fire in the right mindframe. However, there were a lot of things to love - and few things worth bitching about - and here they are, in no particular order. (I might move them around later, when I add pictures and stuff.)